Jennifer Wolowicz named acting South Hadley town administrator

SOUTH HADLEY – On the heels of the sudden departure of Town Administrator Paul Beecher, part-time South Hadley Personnel Officer and Chief Procurement Officer Jennifer Wolowicz has been appointed Acting Town Administrator.

Beecher sent a letter of resignation to Robert Judge, chairman of the Selectboard, on Jan. 20, announcing that he was resigning that day.

Paul Beecher

“After our most recent trip back to Seattle to visit our daughters and grandchildren,” wrote Beecher, “both (my wife) Jennifer and I decided that we would like to make the move there sooner rather than later.

“Family is important to both of us and as time passes so quickly, we decided not to wait any longer,” Beecher wrote.

The vacancy comes at a time of transition for the town. A new Superintendent of Schools, Nicholas Young, will take office this summer, and two searches have begun in relation to The Ledges, the town-owned golf course. The town is seeking a new general manager and a new food-and-beverage service for the course.

It’s also the start of the budget season, in which departments submit their proposed budgets for the next fiscal year to town government for approval.

The Selectboard voted at its meeting on Tuesday to ask Wolowicz to serve, and she started the next day. Previously she had served as Interim Town Administrator in 2009.

“I’m pleased she’s accepted our offer,” said Robert Judge, chairman of the Selectboard, “and I know the other members of the Selectboard are, too.”

Jennifer Wolowicz

Wolowicz’s acceptance allows Selectmen to meet what they described in their Jan. 24 meeting as the most pressing challenge. “With the issues that we have before us, we need somebody in the front office,” said Selectboard member Marilyn Ishler.

The Selectboard had copious praise for chairman Judge at that meeting, saying he had done a “magnificent” job in a difficult situation.

The previous evening, at a meeting of the Tri-board (Selectboard, Appropriations Committee and School Committee), Judge had quieted worries about setting priorities in the absence of leadership by stating calmly: “The leadership is in this room!”

Wolowicz’s term as Acting Town Administrator is open-ended. No other decisions have been made, Judge emphasized.

It has not been decided, for example, whether the town will hire an interim Town Administrator before hiring a permanent Town Administrator.

Having had two town administrators leave early – Beecher after two years, and the last full-time town administrator before him after only three months – the Selectboard expressed a determination to get different results.

Several members had attended the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association in Boston the previous week, where the general consensus on town administrator searches was to hire a consultant, said Selectboard member John Hine.

The board voted for Judge to contact the Collins Center for Public Management at UMass-Boston regarding interim services. “Whatever I’m told will come back to you,” Judge promised.

The Selectboard agreed to meet weekly instead of the usual every other week during this busy period. Time and place of the meetings will be listed in Town Hall and on the South Hadley website.